6 Ways College Students Can Make Money

Today we have a guest post from my friend Jason who is a freelance writer for hire and blogs at The Butlter Journal. You can connect with him on Twitter @Butler_Journal. Take it away Jason!

Most students go through college scrounging for change or waiting for their refunds to drop. There are many other ways for students to make some extra cash. Here are 6 real ways college students can make money.

1. Tutoring

Number 1 on the list is tutoring. If you excel in a certain subject, you may want to look into doing this. Tutors can make a decent amount of money depending on the subject matter and the amount of people they tutor. Students can look to their peers who might need tutoring by advertising their services on social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. They can also put posters up around the campus to advertise their services.

2. Part Time Job

Another way popular way for college students to earn extra money is by getting a part-time job. A student can look several places for a part-time job. Nearby restaurants, grocery stores and shopping malls are great places to start.

I went to college in Savannah, Georgia. There were numerous restaurants that hired students all during the school year. Students can also check to see if anyone on campus has any part-time opportunities. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you will be able to find something.

3. Selling Candy or Sweets

This can be a fun way to earn extra money. Sometimes vending machines in dorms or on campus just don’t cut it. People love their sweets and are more than willing to pay for them. During my freshman year, I made so much money off of this candy called “chews”.

Chews are small pieces of taffy that are very addictive. I had people coming to dorm room up until midnight trying to get some. I also was the only person selling them in the city so that definitely helped with sales. Depending on how exclusive or popular your product is along with how many potential customers you are near, you could earn a couple hundred bucks per week.

4. Babysitting

The 4th way a college student can make money is by babysitting. Depending on the city where their college is located, the need for a sitter may or may not be that great. Then again there may be quite a few student parents who are in need or a babysitter.

Promoting your babysitting business to people you personally know with children is a great way to start. Another option is to search on Craigslist or sign up for a profile on Care.com. You may be able to find potential clients on there.

5. Completing Surveys

Completing surveys is an easy way to earn extra money in your spare time. You can make a couple hundred dollars a year if you put in the time.

The amount that you could make off a survey can vary. Some pay out a measly $0.10 while others could pay $15-$20. Three websites that I’ve used to complete surveys for cash are: Cash Crate, Amazon Mechanical Turk and Swagbucks.
With Swagbucks, you actually start out earning points. The points can be converted to cash or gift cards.

6. Selling items on eBay

As a college student, you may not have that many items to begin with. One item that will definitely make you some money is your old text books. I’m pretty sure you will make more money selling them on eBay than you would selling them back to your school’s book store. Some school book stores might not even buy them back!

Other items that you can sell are old shoes, clothes and school memorabilia. If you need help starting out with eBay check out this post I wrote a few weeks ago titled The Beginners Guide to Selling on eBay.

Editor’s note: I started side hustling out of necessity in college. Looking back, I wish I would have done even more to earn extra money in college since those were some of my brokest days but also helped establish my frugal mindset 🙂 In college I worked a part-time job of course, did a little freelance writing for low pay, and helped my sister out with her online apparel business for about $300/month. If you are a student or returning back to school soon, I encourage you to explore some of these ways to earn extra money.

Did you ever try to earn extra money in college? Which one of these side hustles would you try?

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I was in college from 02-06 and this was when social media was just beginning. We didn’t have use of social media the way some of our fellow millennial do, so I definitely encourage utilizing this to advertise babysitting services and gain some traction with tutoring. Also, side hustling online was pretty much unheard of! You had to get a part time job! I wish I’d had the opportunity to take surveys etc, and thought of selling candy. I’m sure I could have made a nice penny from this. Today’s college students have it made because the possibilities of earning extra income definitely extend outside of part time jobs these days.

Before I went off to uni I used to work at a call center, that was great money, at this call center where I worked at, you could work part-time or full-time. It was a good way to build up experience. Not only that but we also got bonuses twice a year and commissions.

I used to work at a call center part-time and didn’t like it at all because it was more telemarketing. I would have felt better doing customer service but either way, the job taught me a ton of skills that I still use today.

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